We’re goin to Canada!

So of you didn’t already know our high school friend Britta is living in our basement. Not that you have to know that for this post, just a useful piece of information for the future. Anyway, we both LOVE Ben Howard, but completely spaced on buying tickets to his show in Portland. The realization was devastating, but the worst part was people were reselling $30 tickets for $200, no way were we paying almost 7 times face value, so we got our Ben fix elsewhere. Right away we bought tickets for his show in Seattle, but as the week before the concerts approached we decided we needed more Ben and turned our Seattle trip into a weekend tour to Vancouver,BC.

We packed up Friday afternoon and headed north toward Seattle for the first show. We ended up staying at the same hostel we stayed in for Freaknight, Hotel Hotel Hostel. It is super cool, the location is great (right by the Fremont Troll), and it is SUPER affordable. We actually wanted to stay in their sister hostel, City Hostel, in downtown Seattle, but they were closed for construction. I seriously love the entrance to this hostel, so I had to take a picture.

The show was at the Moore Theater in downtown Seattle. Unfortunately we didn’t get tickets in time to get floor spots, but even though we were on the second balcony the view was pretty awesome. Here’s a bit of history, the Moore Theater opened in 1907 and is the oldest operating theater is Seattle.

The show was absolutely wonderful. I wasn’t terribly sold on his newest album, but now I’ve been listening to it nonstop! After the show we went Monkey Loft for a few drinks and dancing, but retired early so we could get a start on our trip to Vancouver,BC bright and early!

Before we took off we made another stop at the Fremont Troll. I love the troll and Britta hadn’t seen it since she was a little kid.

So I decided to do the driving from Seattle to Canada, in hindsight, this was a really bad idea because we had to cross the border. For anyone who knows me, you know I get incredibly anxious about basically anything. Not a good trait for the person in the drivers seat getting grilled by border patrol. After sitting in a very sunny line for an hour we finally got to the border where I first got grouched at totalemy sunglasses off…begin panic. The officer then continued to grill me about where we were going, how we knew each other, if we had any food, etc. and then asked us to pull to the left. In order to do this I had to cross in front of 4 lanes of traffic getting back on the interstate. Additionally, the sign with the arrow to the left said TO THE USA, well that certainly wasn’t where I wanted to go, and there was no way we could be in trouble so I began to follow all of the other cars. Insert angry border patrol officer number 2. He began telling at me to pull off and asking why I didn’t do what angry officer #1 told me. At this point my anxiety was through the roof as we pulled off and got out of our car. We were asked to head into a building and wait for someone to speak with us. Insert angry officer #3 who yelled at me for using my phone even though several people around me were also on their phones. At this point they questioned all of us aeperatelu regarding our trip and intentions. Me being me my hands were shaking, I was sweating, I couldn’t stand still, and I was incredibly awkward throughout true entire process. Because of this they suspected they we were up to no good. They further questioned Britta and Andrew (pointing out my nervous tendencies) and then hardcore searched our car. After they couldn’t find anything, because duh, we had nothing, they finally let us go. Side note: if we were up to no good, a Mini Cooper would not be the car to use-it’s tiny! After this three hour delay we no longer had time to go camping to we just stopped at our hostel, grabbed some dinner in downtownVancouver, and got ready for the second night of Ben Howard.

The Ben Howard concert was a UBC Thunderbird arena….nowhere near our Hostel, but I was quite impressed with out ability to navigate without GPS (kinda forgot about that out of the country thing). The show was great, but I definitely preferred the acuostics of the Moore Theater better, it was built for shows, not sporting events 🙂 I was able to get more pictures and videos this time though because we weren’t all packed in like sardines, I’ll take what I can get!

After the show we harassed back to our hostel in City Center. Vancouver, BC is way bigger than I thought it was. A lot of the streets downtown were blocked off for club goers and there were tons of people playing music on the streets. We didn’t get back until late and cover more most dance clubs was a ridiculous amount so we strolled the streets for a bit before settling on a spot.

By this point I was hungry again so we landed on a place right below our hostel, The Factory. This place was awesome! The drinks were fantastic, the food was cheap and delicious (always under $5), and the bartenders were fantastic. We ended up just hanging here for the rest of the night. Everyone was super friendly so we met a lot of new faces.

We packed up Sunay morning and drove straight back to Portland (it is a surprisingly short drive). After my last experience with the border I left that part to Andrew. Within a matter of 15 minutes we were back in the US with no problems, a much different experience than the day before. Anyone else have interesting experiences trying to cross a border?

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Published by Plant Based Bohemian

Hi, I'm Emilie a 20-something Iowa farm girl who packed up and moved to the Pacific Northwest! I love food, travel, festivals, adventure, and my small family. Join me as I share my favorite food and adventures around the world.
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About Me

Hi, I'm Emilie a 20-something Iowa farm girl who packed up and moved to the Pacific Northwest! I love food, travel, festivals, adventure, and my small family. Join me as I share my favorite food and adventures around the world.